Four years ago at about this time I was scurrying around, hunting up stories for the first issue of the Westside Pioneer, wondering how a paper focusing totally on
Westside news would be received.
The answer to that question is evident in the fact that here we are, still scurrying, still publishing, and still feeling tremendously appreciative every time someone takes a
moment to say they like the job we're doing.
It's been an interesting four years. There have been a number of changes, as might be expected, but by and large the Westside is still the same old place it's always
been - filled with people who tend to place more importance on enjoying life and getting along than on ambitiously ramming to the top of some ladder of success. But
being a Westsider also means taking a stand when you have to. For instance, our "stories of the year" this edition include at least three issues (West Kiowa, St. Vrain
and Highway 24) where everyday people have fearlessly gone up against powerful forces.
I don't think I've told this story here before. If you went back a fifth year, you'd find me as as editor of the weekly in Monument. I still lived on the Westside - have for
more than 20 years - but I needed a job, and there I was. And every day that I drove up there, I felt more and more like a mercenary. I wasn't alone Nobody on that
paper then lived in Monument. Once a neighborhood paper, it had been sold to a chain that could care less, and the residents there seemed to know it. I liked the
idea of a neighborhood paper, but it wasn't my neighborhood. At last the epiphany came (sound of hand slapping forehead): Why not start a paper for the
neighborhood where I do live? And here we still are. Hey, what about another year?